Amazing Journeys

Midnight Sun - Norway

2010-05-27T18:03:00.003+08:00

Hey, here it was my next amazing journey -

Norway, Nordkapp - 71° 10'21"N - August 4, 2004

Sun at 8:47 PM

Sun at 9:40 PM
Sun at 11:05 PM
Forgot to take more photos towards midnight!

Well, seeing the midnight sun was quite a bit of luck. When we departed from our Hotel in Honningsvag, it was heavily hazy and foggy. We were doubt if the sun would smile to us. Luckily after 45 minutes of drive, sky became clear. No wonder there was a proverb saying 'as changeable as weather'. Who knows when the fog will come again? Our guide made a very clever decision. He swapped our F&B session with the sun viewing session. That allows us almost a full hour to admire the midnight sun.

A sealiner brought in about 1,000 guests sharp on time at midnight, but the sun already gone. The sun didn't sympathize anybody becasue we were on time; were coming from the other part of the world; were whole-heartedly looking forward to see him again....

It was actually quite a long journey to see the midnight sun. Arrived Helsinki from Hong Kong, we had to drive all the way north for a day and a half, stayed overnight midway at Ivalo. Honningsvag is the northern-most city in Europe with habitants.

At Nordkapp, facing the Nordic Ocean, it was quite chilly and windy, though it was mid summer. But seeing the midnight sun, we were all excited and didn't care about anything else.

In northern Europe near the North Pole in summer, the sun is always there. Even 11pm, the sun is still bright and shinning. Sunset might happen for a few minutes, and sun rise again. What an experience!!

Anna's Amazing Journey - Midnight Sun

King Pacific Lodge Canada – Perfect Luxury Hideaway Resort

2010-04-15T17:49:00.002+08:00

My next amazing journey's destination was the luxury hideaway resort in Canada - King Pacific Lodge - Princess Royal Island at British Columbia. Actually if you are planning for your luxury hideaway holidays, this is one of my top suggestions.

We flew from Hong Kong to Vancouver and had a brief stop. From Vancouver, we were transferred to Bella Bella by a chartered flight which was part of the luxury all inclusive package offered by King Pacific Lodge. From Bella Bella, we were transferred to this remote resort by float plane. This is actually one of the top luxury resorts I have visited and at the same time, the most remote. I remember my boss said ‘We are in the middle of nowhere’ when we landed in Bella Bella. I’m sure you’ll feel the same when you are here.

There are several reasons King Pacific Lodge is on my Top 10 List. Here are a few of them:

Best Whale Watching
There were only 17 rooms. Some of them had sea view and only two of them had a balcony. One of the balcony rooms was occupied by my boss, of course. I was lucky enough to be assigned the other one with both sea view and a balcony. Hence I could enjoy whale watching by lying on a chair in my balcony. Three steps in whale watching: heard a sound, saw a splash of water, saw the whale’s head or tail or body. I went by late September and there were lots of them, as it was the best time in a year to watch whales at King Pacific Lodge.

Best Eco Adventure
Kayaking among sea lions and starfishes was something extremely interesting. The sea lions were curious to find out who we were and were not afraid of swimming around us. Water here was crystal clear and along the shore, we could see a lot of dark red starfishes, some of them had five limbs and some had more. Of course we did whale watching at near distance. I failed in bear watching because I went on a rainy day when the bears might probably prefer to stay home. Many other wildlife were seen in areas around the lodge.

Transportation within the lodge is by sea only.

Best Luxury Hideaway Resort
King Pacific Lodge is a perfect remote resort to do any corporate offsite because laptops and mobile phones wouldn’t work here. We were completely separated from rest of the world. My boss was happy to have full attention from everyone as they could not talk on mobile phones or check blackberries under the table while attending meetings. Likewise, if you want to enjoy a hideaway holiday, King Pacific Lodge is one of the top Canadian resorts where you won’t be disturbed by phone calls or emails. (Only VERY LIMITED access of internet and telephone was available at the business centre.)

From their official website:

King Pacific Lodge provides the ultimate in luxury adventure travel and ecotourism vacations from its location in the heart of the Great Bear Rainforest on the west coast of British Columbia, Canada. As a luxury wilderness lodge, this is an unsurpassed eco adventure travel destination. Among its many accolades, King Pacific Lodge was selected as the Best Resort in Canada
by Condé Nast Readers' Choice Awards in 2008 and again in 2009.

– I personally think that KPL well deserves these awards.

Anna's Amazing Journeys - King Pacific Lodge

Ottoman Party

2010-04-08T17:59:00.004+08:00

There were shops in Istanbul where we can rent an Ottoman custom to dress up ourselves. To prepare for our Ottoman Party, we were delivered to one of thoese shops to choose our own favourite custom. Our Ottoman Party was not only a party, but our next team challenge.

Our exercise for the day was to invite a guest with inspirational stories in their life to our party and share with us their experiences. I must say this was the most difficult exercise. All 'A' members in our team, Anna (2N), Ana (1N), Ashley, Adam together with our local guide Yavuz, held a strategic meeting at the Four Seasons before departing to the Grand Bazzar.

We actually had a number of proposals but none of them seemed perfect. Yavuz suggested to invite his wife to share their love story but we all wanted to test our luck at the Grand Bazzar first. As you know, once we were at a place with interest and fun, we all forgot about our target. We just enjoyed shopping the beautiful souveniors, the Turkish Blue Eyes and a lot many other cheap, colourful and beautiful things at the Grand Bazzar.

When we meet again over lunch, we had no chocie but to accept Yavuz's suggestion. Yavuz alrsoreminded us of the risk of other people might not turn up in the last minute which will spoil our entire plan. His wife and him will of course honour their promise. Yavuz then took us home after lunch to meet his wife and planned for the evening.

Dennis, a bronze-hair beautiful English woman, married a Turkish guy; a Protestian and a Muslim got married at a Cathorlic church...well not quite appropriate to share too much of their privacy here. But for sure their love story was really inspirational.

Ottoman Party & Presentation
As a tradition, we took our group photo over the party with all and everyone in Ottoman custom. Dennis came on time with some visual aids. Our group was picked to present first. The two 'N's were busy organising the visual aid while the boys conduct the presentation together with Dennis. We noticed that the carpet shop owner was the guest of one of our groups. Anyway, as we have guests with us, our boss decided to announce the results the following day.

I've asked my guide to wrap my head to make me look a 100% Ottoman

Yavuz and his wife were so helpful that we were completed impressed. Adam suggested to share our winnings with them. But believe it or not, we acctually didn't win a penny thought we were the second runner-up. The reason being too many complaints. Our boss finally decided to cancel the last team challenge and gave rest of our jackpot to charity. Wow, we can't look down on the power of complaining. But somehow, I did support such decision, as many of us didn't accept the 'rule of no rule' which induced the many complaints at the beginning.

Anna's Amazing Journey - Ottoman Party, Istanbul

More Training at Istanbul Heritages

2010-03-26T17:21:00.005+08:00

The next team challenge was held at the Ottoman heritages such as Blue Mosque, Haghia Sophia and the Topkapi Palace. Today, our guide became Yasemin. My team members were Gavin, Simon, Asley, all Brits.

Over Demanding Walking Tours
It was actually a day of walking tours as all these places were just nearby to each other and were walkable from the Four Seasons. For me, it was quite a difficult day as I usually not able to walk that long way. As the Blue Mosque was a sacred place for Muslims, I brought a big scarf to cover myself up to make sure my arms are not shown. Of course shoulder cuts and shorts were not allowed. We also had to take our shoes off (quite smelly) at the entrance.

This time we were divided into four teams to visit either the Blue Mosque or Haghia Sophia and to answer a set of related questions. After all, our team decided to go to the Blue Mosque.

Anna at the Blue Mosque

Peter distributed the questionnaire and we had to find out the answers during our visit. Well my team members were all former internationlly well known bankers, I was shy to speak up among them. Also I had to blame the English of the Turkish guide because I could hardly understood what she said. Another reason could be I lack of an understanding of the history of the Ottoman Empire.

Refugee Lunch at the Topkapi Palace
As we were hungry, our boss decided to announce the results after lunch. I was glad to know that but upset afterwards as I had to walk for another 30 minutes to the restaurant at the Topkapi Palace. My goodness, I need a cab to take me there, but there was none. Thesw walking tours were about to kill me. With a pair of painful legs, the lunch became very unacceptable.

Our company offsites were famous for being extremely luxury. How come we were offered a fast food lunch at a refugee camp kind of restaurant? Well it could be the best restaurant at the Topkapi Palace. Who knows?

The brief visit to the Topkapi Palace after lunch did not offer much interest to me. Again partially because I don't know the Ottoman history and partially because there were really no great things to see. Perhaps I have seen too many great palaces in Britain and the 86-carat diamond here was not comparable to that of the 530-carat of the Queen's in London.

After lunch, Peter announced the results. There were complaints of course. May was the head of the complaint team. One thing raised by Peter the trainer, was quite worth considering. He said "Win is win; lose is lose. In real life, there is no way that we can ask clients why we lose, as they are not obliged to tell us. We just have to accept failure as a matter of life. There are chances to fail no matter how good we do. What's the most important is that we do our best". Something similar to 'rule of no rule'. Was this the training message that our boss meant to get across?

Tile/Carpet Tour
Our walking tour ended at last around 4pm. I was so glad to be transferred to our shopping tour by a van. We had to choose between a tile shop and a carpet shop. I decided to go to the tile shop. I must say the handicrafts there were very nice. I spent 37,500,000 Turkish Lira for a 4"x4" ceramic tile coaster. Yes, 37.5 million, but I think they've adjust the exchange rate now to make life easier. The money I spent was actaully around HK$200 (US$25.6).

The tired day of walking tours finished at last with a Turkish themed dinner at a prison-like restaurant, in terms of lighting, setting and everything. Unfotunately I had to walk back to the Four Seasons. Poor me, this was my most unpleasant day at Istanbul.

Anna's Amazing Journeys - Walking Tour at Istanbul

Training at The Spice Market, Istanbul

2010-03-11T17:35:00.003+08:00

Our first training challenge was held at the Spice Market. That morning, I thought people at the market all noticed that there were groups of multi-national trainees running madly within the market, doing similar activities and bargaining badly.

Anna at the Spice Market, Istanbul

Rule of ‘No Rule’
We were divided into five groups each accompanied by a local Turkish guide. Each group had a same set of shopping list and to-do list. We were required to complete both with the minimum amount of money and within the given time frame. Peter F told us, the group which completed all the tasks with the least money will win. That was the only rule of the game. Apart from that, there was practically ‘no rule’.

Team Challenge Task List
The team challenge required us to do all these:
- Fortune telling with a rabbit
- Buy tea tree oil
- Buy candies
- Buy a belly dance bell
- Request a shop owner to drink apple tea and take a photo with us
- And many others….

As the project involved money, Charlotte volunteered to be the treasurer (using her own money). Michael and Gavin planned the route and of course our guide Etem gave us advices. Satoko became the lead purchaser. Last but not the least, I became the photographer. I have been working with Satoko for five years, but never realized that she was such a great bargainer. I was really shocked by her excellent bargaining skills and persistency. Supported by her two male assistants, I thought that we really did a great job.

Violating the ‘Rule of No Rule’
While we reported our results and the money spent, Peter F announced the results and every one of us seemed to be happy. Our group was the second runner up. However after a while, I heard some complaints when we exchanged experience of how to get our tasks done. May raised her hand and protested against the winning team because they bribed the shop owner to give them the tea tree oil free, claiming that they’ll give him something free in return the next day. However there was ‘no rule’ to violate as Peter’s only rule was the least money spent will determine the winner. When leaving the Spice Market, we all became unhappy about the ‘rule of no rule’.

More team challenges in Istanbul to come.

Anna's Amazing Journeys - Training at the Spice Market, Istanbul

Heading To Four Season Istanbul

2010-03-03T16:53:00.005+08:00

Our next luxury offsite destination was Istanbul, Turkey. Actually, on the itinerary, we also visited Izmir and London in the same trip.

Weather Information
Weather forecast over the internet might not be completely reliable. We departed at late September. Many weather websites forecasted 11-25°C. However I was shocked when the pilot reported 32°C just before landing. I got a whole suitcase of wrong clothing. Well, I had to spend money in buying some T-shirts quickly.

Four Seasons Istanbul
As usual, we always go luxury in terms of hotel. This time we checked in to the 5-star Four Seasons Istanbul at Sultanahmet. It was located somewhere nearby historial sites, very convenient for us to visit the Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace, Haghia Sofia and so on. The building itself was quite Middle Eastern style.

The service team here was really efficient. My roommate didn't feel well, they managed to arrange a doctor to come and see her in an hour, just before we checked out. That was really impressive. In fact, Four Seasons Istanbul at Sultanahmet enjoys extremely high rating at TripAdvisor.

Four Seasons Istanbul at Sultanahmet

Turning Ottoman Heritages Into Training Sites
This year we still have Peter F onboard to be our trainer. Unlike in Africa last year, we moved the training outdoor and made use of the Ottoman heritages as our training sites. This time the training was quite luxury as our company had arranged a jackpot of US$25,000 for the winners of the various training challenges. Well, this was encouraging however discouraging too. I’ll tell you why.

- Spice Market
- Blue Mosque
- Haghia Sophia
- Topkapi Palace
- Ottoman Party

Other Turkish Activities
Ephesus, Izmir
Carpet Tour
Turkish Bath

My next post will report how our luxury trainings and meetings went.

Anna's Amazing Journeys - Arriving into Istanbul, Turkey

Ulusaba Game Drive – Animal Showcase

2010-02-06T15:47:00.016+08:00

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We have two game drives daily. Everyday we met different animals. The rangers and trackers seem to know where these animals are. So we never come back with zero results.

The Snake Puzzle
One day, on our way to the bush breakfast, the other jeep of colleagues just stop in front of us looking at a green snake on a tree. We were scared especially with the big opened mouth and the red tongue. However Carl, the other jeep’s ranger didn’t seem to be afraid at all and was trying to suppress the snake. All at a sudden people were laughing. It was a fake one, it was Leon’s plastic snake! I started to realize that it was the one that Leon wore at the annual dinner last night. It was such a joke, we were all teased by the colleagues of the other jeep. Anyway, it was amusing, a plastic snake in the wild on a tree, did look real.

Mini Owl On A Midnight Tree
You can’t imagine how a man while driving can spot a tiny creature hiding in the dense leaves of a tree after dark by only listening to its voice. Saly got lost, Lawrence grip the spot light and found it. It was so small, just 15cm tall, the world’s smallest owl.

Animal Showcase
After so many game drives, I got mixed up with animals from the antelopes family. To me kudo, duiker, nyala and waterbuck all look the same. But Lawrence and Janet can name them immediately. Well, a matter of experience. For people like us living in a city, it is difficult for us to identify the animals. But for people living in a game reserve, animals are just like their friends. We can identify our friends, can’t we?

I have also asked Lawrence if he ever had to vaccinate against Yellow Fever. He said ‘never’, neither do anybody at Ulusaba Game Reserve. They also never have to use mosquito repellant. Well, they live there, may got immune.
Here is a short list of the animals that I met over the few days at Ulusaba Game Reserve. Without reading the names, see how many you can identify. Again, my mini camera didn’t produce good photos, so I’ve borrowed these photos from Wiki.

Animals from the Antelopes Family

Duiker Impala
Kudu

Nyala Waterbuck
Steenbok

Other Animals We Met at Ulusaba

Cheetah

Giraffe

Hippo

Hyaena

Warthog

Recommended Reading

Ulusaba Private Game Reserve Encountered

Book cover preview from Anna's private collection

Ulusaba Private Game Reserve - South Africa
Anna's Amazing Journeys

Ulusaba Game Drive – The Big Cat Show

2010-01-31T17:20:00.008+08:00

Game Drive at Ulusaba offered us new experiences everyday. I believe this was also true even for the rangers and trackers. The amazing BIG CAT show was one that made us unforgettable.

Over the walkie talkie, Lawrence was told that there was a baby leopard around. After quite a difficult journey, ran on medium size trees and rugged land, we were all completely impressed by the engine of Land Rover, a little leopard was found.

It was such a close encounter, the leopard lay only somewhat like 5-6 feet apart from us. This was a completely unique experience to us. With spots all over the body, the leopard was such a beautiful creature. If you ever had a cat at home, you can image what we’ve seen in this morning’s leopard show.

This beautiful creature performed an unforgettable BIG CAT Show for us.

Unfortunately my mini camera had no video function!

It was actually a BIG CAT show. Cat walk, cleaning, scratching, typical lovely cat motions were all demonstrated. With his tongue cleaning his paws, then his face and his head; cleaning the tail, cleaning the hands, cleaning the rear legs – it was such a great leopard show. That was exactly what your cat does at home, but now by a big cat in the wild. It was just amazing! We were all extremely happy when saying goodbye to the lovely baby leopard.

Animal Emotions
Animals do have emotions. While Peter reported them being charged by a rhino, we were charged by an angry elephant in the same morning. Nobody knew what has pissed him off. Anyway, the elephant was coming towards us. Janet our tracker, with her natural instinct quickly drove away and the elephant was still after us for a certain distance. May yelled to wait while taking photo with Sean using the elephant as the backdrop, without knowing that her life being threatened. Janet said ‘you want a photo, but we want our lives’.

About elephants, I didn’t know that they were quite a destroyer in the jungle, until I saw the facts. They like pulling down trees and eat their leaves, bark and even the trunks. All the dead dry tree bodies on the floor were left over from their meals.

Bloody Kill
This was what we most wanted to see and most afraid of seeing. One morning, we were closed to a fresh kill, perhaps just two hours late. A cheetah lay proudly beyond his prey, probably a young impala. The cheetah seemed to be so full that he was unable or didn’t care to move.

See the cheetah and his prey on the tree?

Separately we saw a family of two lioness and three cubs eating the left over of their prey from yesterday. Pulling the internal organs out was really bloody and cruel. Next a leopard on the tree was enjoying his prey, a bit more fresh than the lions’. It demonstrated the natural rule of order. The dominator ate first, not until he finished, his subordinate didn’t had a chance. Once he moved away, the next quickly continued. And of course there was a hyena waiting apart to clear the left over.

Recommended Reading

Ulusaba Private Game Reserve Encountered

Book cover preview from Anna's private collection

Ulusaba Private Game Reserve - South Africa
Anna's Amazing Journeys

Ulusaba Game Drive – African Big Fives

2010-01-22T17:20:00.009+08:00

Game Drive at Ulusaba had a couple of safety rules to follow. One, keep quiet and still; two, stay with the group. In short, don’t leave the jeep and don’t do anything that will irritate the animals.

I was told that animals usually won’t attack anything that is bigger in size than them. So if we stay together – 11 people in a jeep – animals will view us as one single huge object (in terms of the animals’ eyesight) and will not attempt to attack. However if we leave the jeep and stand alone, we will become dangerous.

Before we depart for the first game drive, we were given a book by Ulusaba describing their property and the environment and the animals that we could expect to see. We all had a check list of the BIG Fives and see if we had the luck to see them all.

As we had game drives twice daily, different colleagues went on different routes and met different animals. Though game drive had no guarantee, every time we found something new. After all, when we cross checked our lists, we were all lucky enough to meet all the Big Fives, though on different days and different occasions.

As I said, my primitive camera on this trip didn’t produce good quality photos. I have therefore borrowed the Big Fives photos from Wiki. But I did meet them all.

African Big Fives
Lion, Leopard, Rhino, Elephant, Buffalo

Lion

Leopard

Elephant
Buffalo

Rhino

Recommended Reading

Ulusaba Private Game Reserve Encountered

Book cover preview from Anna's private collection

Ulusaba Private Game Reserve - South Africa
Anna's Amazing Journeys

Ulusaba Game Drive Experience

2010-01-21T18:19:00.006+08:00

Breakfast and lunch usually served at Rock Lodge, with extremely fantastic views. Everyone were excited in seeing several elephants from apart. It was time to show off telescopes and binoculars. Those without one can only blame themselves of not well prepared.

Breakfast at Rock Lodge - very fantastic views

My room is at Safari Lodge which is quite nearby the training hall. All rooms at Ulusaba Game Reserve were WITHOUT air-conditioning. It was hot but a true African feel. All beds were covered with nets to protect us from mosquitoes.

While sleeping at night, we could hear animals roaring outside our room, but just couldn’t identify who they were. In the morning, we usually see groups of baboons playing at near distance. I had never stay close to animals that way!

We have two sessions of game drives each day – one in early morning and one in the afternoon after the training. The morning one was more comfortable in terms of temperature. The afternoon one was extremely hot. Anyway it was a new experience to see animals at their home, rather than at a zoo. It was a nine-seated open-top Land Rover with each row elevated to ensure everyone has a good view.

I am sitting at the tracker's seat

Each game drive was conducted by a ranger who is also the driver and a tracker who usually sit at the very front of the jeep whose job is to spot animals. Saly (the ranger) and Lawrence (the tracker) were our Ulusaba game drive guides.

Very unfortunately I brought with me a very primitive camera on this trip. My photos were not successful at all. However please bear with me. More interesting and exciting game drive experiences to come in my future posts.

I now become the ranger

Recommended Reading

Ulusaba Private Game Reserve Encountered

Book cover preview from Anna's private collection

Ulusaba Private Game Reserve - South Africa
Anna's Amazing Journeys

Heading to Africa – Ulusaba Game Reserve

2010-01-19T15:29:00.003+08:00

Ulusaba Game Reserve was in the middle of a jungle north of Johannesburg.

Departing from Hong Kong, it took us 13 hours to arrive into Johannesburg on direct flight. My company was taking us to another offsite, after to Dubai last year. You might wonder how luxury can a game reserve tour be. Well, first of all, we were connected to the site by a 90-minute domestic flight. I was told that if we didn’t take this expensive option, it might take over 6 hours of driving.

Heading to an African jungle, an additional preparation work was needed – medical advices. Prior to our departure, there had been discussions going over in our office of how to protect us from any possible diseases. On the safe side, I consulted a doctor and was advised to take a vaccination against Yellow Fever. It will go into effect after 10 days of vaccination and I had to carry with me some tablets to be taken while in Africa.

Life in Ulusaba (South Africa) was quite simple. There were mainly three things to do everyday:
· Game Drive – two times a day (morning/afternoon)
· Training – NLP
· Meeting and eating

Claiming to have been to South Africa, its better saying I have been to a jungle in South Africa. Actually Ulusaba Game Reserve was the only place I stayed through the rest of the week. Apart from there, we had a short 30-minute ride to visit a nearby village, and that was all.

I must say Ulusaba wasn’t as deluxe as Al Maha of last year, but it offered another kind of unique experience in my travel history. Have you ever experienced an elephant walk outside your training hall, drawing your attention away from the trainer? For me, yes, that was Ulusaba South Africa.

Upon our arrival, the NLP training was done immediately after a brief lunch at the Safari Lodge. Ulusaba had two groups of Lodges namely Safari Lodge and Rock Lodge, both among breathtaking landscapes and I shall go into details in my later posts.

Ulusaba Game Reserve South Africa

Anna's Amazing Journeys

The Legend of Al Maha

2010-01-12T17:53:00.003+08:00

To wrap up my amazing journey to Dubai at the Al Maha Desert Resort, I would like to provide a little background about this award-winning hotel.

Well Al Maha is not only a hotel, but a conservative project aiming to protect Dubai’s last remaining wilderness area. Built in the style of an ancient Bedouin settlement, the neutral toned 'tents' shade individual suites of understated, modern luxury. Each private suite is furnished with original, unique and rare collections of regional artwork and antiques.

Staying within a green and verdant oasis amongst some of Arabia's most impressive dune and desert landscapes, Al Maha offers me personal and seductive experiences of the region's history and hospitality, in absolute comfort.

I really enjoy staying close with friendly however endangered animals like oryx and gaxelle. Actually my nature walk, desert dinning and field guides all contributed to an unforgettable unique and luxury travel experience.

The Emirates video below provides very comprehensive background information about how Al Maha was built in the middle a desert. Enjoy viewing.

More About Al Maha Desert Resort

Recommended Reading

Anna' Amazing Journeys

Desert Activities at Al Maha Resort

2010-01-08T17:17:00.006+08:00

I was told that my company had to pay US$400 per person per night to cover our rooms and choice of two activities in the desert. The meeting package and desert dinner should be subjected to additional fee.

Actually our schedule only allowed one activity for each of us. Our company had short-listed Falconry, Sand Skiing and Nature Walk for us. The other activities included camel trekking, archery.....view the full list of Al Maha activities.

Though Al Maha was famous for its Timeless SPA treatments, we just didn’t have time to try it out.

Personally, I was afraid that Falconry could be quite bloody and Sand Skiing too exciting, so I have opted for a Nature Walk.

To avoid the sunny heat, we had to start at 6am. Only Sheila and I were in the group, accompanied by our Field Guide Gavin.

Gavin showed us how to spot the desert habitats by their unique footprints. Zigzags were snakes; 3x2 mini holes were beetles; holes like the size of our little finger were homes of spiders; gazelles footprints were bigger for the fore limbs and smaller for the rears; footprint shapes like dogs and cats were oryx and fox. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any of these creatures except oryx and gaxelle which could be seen almost anywhere within Al Maha. The Walk concluded in about an hour.

Gavin, our Field Guide took us to Nature Walk at dawn

After the morning activities, we all joined together for a Dubai city tour, followed by a 5-star cruise on a private boat. Our German guide told us that UAE is such a rich country that the locals don’t have to work. All those who have to work are from overseas. Due to the limited time we had, we were only able to visit one shopping arcade and a souk where my colleagues were madly shopping for carpets and shawls.

As for myself, I only wanted to buy the three little jars from my bath room and also the beautiful set of cutlery from the hotel restaurant. However both items were not for sale. That was the only complaint I had for Al Maha. After all, my only souvenir was the three post cards which were free from my tent (see below).

Al Maha Desert Resort Activities

Anna's Amazing Journeys

Explore Al Maha Facilities

2010-01-04T15:27:00.011+08:00

Before I talk about the activities at Al Maha, let me talk about their room facilities first. It was a truly Arabic feel which made me feel like going back to the time of Aladdin and his Enchanted Lamp.

One morning, I woke up at 5.30am to do the Nature Walk. It was only 7pm when I came back. Rita, my roommate, was not in as she went to the Sand Dune Ride. So I had almost two hours private time in the tent. So I tried to make use of all the resources inside the room to enjoy a private session. The tent was connected to the outside pool and private little garden by 5 to 6 huge exits where I just walked in and out freely.

First I went on to the private pool for a swim and took photos for myself using the auto function of my camera. But I didn’t have a tripod. So I had to move stuff from inside the tent to support the camera. That was quite an exercise and kept me busy for a while.
The size of the pool was quite small like the size of a jacuzzi and the water temperature was quite high, so I gave up after a short while.

Lying on the chair in the balcony, I went on to do animal searching by using the telescope provided by Al Maha. In the surrounding desert area, there were many Oryx and Gazelle living harmoniously with human being. Actually we can see them everywhere even without a telescope. At the same time I was studying information about these friendly animals as I’ve borrowed some books from the lobby.

Next I used the drawing board and colour pencils to create a drawing of the surrounding environment. The desert landscape around Al Maha was actually very picturesque and that’s why we were given these drawing facilities. After my drawing session, the sun was up and it became very hot outdoor, so I moved indoor.

After swimming, it was time to explore the bathroom. It was huge, like the size of my home in Hong Kong. Al Maha bathroom was not only luxury, but unique. Things here were of Arabic design. Even the little jars containing shampoo and conditioner were of Aladdin style - very streamlined and elegant. I had never come across a bathroom that was so thoughtfully designed and decorated.

I brought some aromatic oil from Hong Kong to release my neck pain. It was a good time to have an aromatic bath as I really love the bathtub here. After all, Rita came back and we all went on to join the Dubai city tour.

This is one of the best designed bathroom I have experience!

To avoid walking under severe heat, we ordered a cart and someone came pick us up at our tent and send us to join the 4-wheel drive which in turn took us to join the coach for the Dubai city tour. If we were at the lobby, whoever available will be happy to drive us on a little cart to any destination within Al Maha.

Al Maha Desert Resort - Facilities

Anna's Amazing Journeys

Al Maha Unique Dining Experience

2009-12-29T11:23:00.005+08:00

Al Maha Desert Resort has a fleet of camels serving as hotel limousines. We’ve also borrowed them to take our group photo.

Our Gala Dinner was held in the middle of the desert. After dark, two of us shared a ‘walking limousine’ and it was a 30-minute ride to get to the restaurant. But how the camels or the camel jockey found their way in complete darkness? Well, I really don’t know. Towards end of the journey, all of us became silent until we saw little spots of light ahead of us.

Riding on a camel was fun,
but riding for 30 minutes was somehow boring

How they managed to build a fully functional restaurant in the middle of a desert is something quite beyond imagination. Salad bar, cocktail bar, grill bar – anything you can see in a 5-star hotel in the city can be seen here. What’s even amazing was a flush water toilet. How they managed to build it? Well, they can build a hotel in the middle of a desert, building a restaurant and a toilet shouldn’t be a problem.

The restaurant was completely perfect except without air conditioning as it was outdoor. Temperature was probably around 35°C. It was even hotter after we joined the belly dancers for the traditional Arabic dance. I was highly admired because of my little personal folding fan.

Services from Al Maha Desert Resort were super luxury. The number of waiters were more than the 18 of us. We were served drinks immediately upon arrival and the four-member band started to play Arabic music. There was a camp fire in the middle and fire posts around. I just had a 100% Arabic feel. Our seating area was covered by carpets and table setting was 6 by 3. The restaurant manager came to each of our tables to introduce the dishes just to make sure we enjoy an authentic Arabic dinner.

After dinner, Al Maha was afraid that we would fall off the camels and sent cars and drivers to take us back to our tents. What an amazing Arabic dining experience at Al Maha Desert Resort.

Al Maha Desert Resort

2009-12-24T16:50:00.007+08:00

Al Maha Desert Resort is a member of the The Leading Small Hotels of the World. Well they are small in terms of number of rooms, but they are great in terms of customer service, room size and everything. The whole property has 30 tents. Each tent is relevant to a room/suite in a normal hotel. Even the hotel is full, there won’t be more than 100 guests. So we were guaranteed of the most premium level of intensive VIP services.

The following morning, we gathered at the Library and a briefing was done by Gavin and Danielle. They were our barters as well as guides. Actually they were very good at multi-tasking and did whatever we wanted.

I am going to skip details of our meetings, because I’m here to talk about my unique travel experience and not to promote our headhunting business. The group meetings were held privately in a place of our choice within Al Maha. The four of us – John (the boss), Leon, Rita and me gathered at John’s suite. I am not quite sure what type of a suite it was, as at Al Maha, there are four types of suites, namely Bedouin, Royal, Emirates and Presidential. My boss is always luxury for everything, so I assume his suite was the best.

The interior design of my tent is basically the same as a suite, but just smaller in size.

Indeed it was the most luxury suite I have ever come across. At the main entrance, there was a courtyard and a fountain with one bedroom on both sides. These are bedrooms for helpers, not for the host. I assume whoever travel with two helpers must be luxury travellers. Inside the suite, the living room is like the size of a basket ball playground overseeing the private pool. Of course the pool size is much larger than the one at my room. The double bedroom was shared by John and Peter, the other single room was occupied by Leon.

Well, this is only the beginning of my amazing journey at the Al Maha Desert Resort. I have here clipped a video to introduce the Suite Bedouin – just to give you a quick preview of its unique Arabic interior design and the associated environment. The video is nicely taken, however without music background. Please bear with it.

I have browsed Trip Advisor and found that Al Maha Desert Resort is enjoying almost unanimously 5-star rating, which is quite rare. You might want to click and read the reviews.

Thank you for visiting my blog. I shall continue posting about my amazing journey at Al Maha Desert Resort.

Arrive Into Dubai

2009-12-16T17:52:00.014+08:00

Departing from Hong Kong, it took us 8.5 hours to arrive into Dubai, including a brief stop at Bahrain.

It was my first time to the Middle East. My first impression was ‘hot’. Arriving into Dubai by midnight, but the temperature was still high, probably over 35°C. Dubai airport was quite big. It took us almost 30 minutes to walk to Immigration. UAE is a rich country, hence don’t care about a visa fee. We could all obtain our visa upon arrival. More about UAE visa.

To continue our journey to Al Maha, we had to wait for the four-wheel drives which took us almost an hour’s waiting time. The driver was complaining that the traffic was badly controlled and he was unable to pick us up though he saw us waiting.

Driving in darkness in the desert was a new experience to me – there were no roads, no traffic lights, no road signs and only sand around us. I had a feeling of unsecured because our safety all depended on the experience of the driver. In about 40 minutes, we arrived at our destination at last – Al Maha Desert Resort.

Wow, I was completely exhausted, though we travelled on business class. The welcome drink became the most treasure thing in the world. Though I realized that Al Maha was quite an unusual place, I just didn’t had the energy to examine it. The water heater needed to store water first. I therefore decided to give up my bath as it was already 3am and I had to attend our business meeting at 9am sharp the following morning.

Anna's Luxury Recommendation

Dubai Luxury Hotels

Anna's Amazing Journeys

Amazing Journeys

2009-12-15T17:45:00.004+08:00

I have many amazing journeys which are unforgettable. My blog is here to record them and to share my travel experience with the world. Someone wrote this in his travel book: other people’s experience in a strange place is your best travel guide. Indeed, I hope my travel experience will help to add value and fun to your next journey.

I used to work for a headhunting firm and my company had brought me to a number of extraordinary luxury offsite tours in different continents. Apart from these corporate amazing journeys, I am going to record along with my personal travel to some of the most attractive places in the world. All destinations in this blog have one thing in common: uniqueness. Some of them are quite luxury.

To summarise my unique and luxury travel blog, here are my journeys to:
· Al Maha Desert Resort – Dubai, UAE
· Ulusaba Game Reserve – South Africa
· Istanbul, Izmir – Turkey
· King Pacific Lodge – Canada
· Road to Mandalay – Burma
· Midnight Sun – Norway
· Southern Alps – New Zealand
· Altitude Yunan – China
· Great Wall of China
· Penguin tour – Kangaroo Island, Australia

Amazing Journeys